Seren's Baptism

As a person of our church, when we turn 8 or join our church after the age of 8, you get Baptized just like Jesus and become a member of 'The Church of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints'.

 SEREN WITH HER DADDY

ME, JASON, SEREN & CARYS

So, when our darling daughter, Seren turned 8 in March we knew she'd be getting baptized. A decision she made also :) 

WE ARE SO PROUD OF HER AND LOVE HER TO BITS :)

Given all that, I began the process of figuring out what THEME to use for her and the family and friends who would come for refreshments afterward.

Which led me to Pinterest and the theme of RAINBOWS

THE WONDERFUL WOODEN CIRCLE WITH SEREN'S FULL NAME AND TEMPLE WAS MADE MY BY ELDEST DAUGHTER JODI WHEN WE WERE IN WALES FOR A VISIT IN MARCH.

JODI HAS A WONDERFUL LITTLE SITE:

HYFRYD CREATIONS

 I MADE SIMPLE TISSUE GARLANDS

AND THOSE CIRCLE GARLANDS DANGLING ABOVE THE #8

I ALSO MADE THE TRIANGLE BANNER, WHICH I USED FOR BOTH OF OUR GIRLS' BIRTHDAYS THIS YEAR.

I PURCHASED THE RAINBOW WITH RAINDROPS BANNER FROM ORIENTAL TRADING

THE MORNING OF SEREN'S BAPTISM

 AS TREATS I USED 'TASTE THE RAINBOW' AND SKITTLES. 

I HAVE TO ADD - SORTING EACH COLOR BY HAND WAS TIME-CONSUMING. 

I made cupcakes and used Xtreme sour candy belts as a topper as well as making the cupcake wrappers in the rainbow colors to match the triangle banner and rainbow circle decorations. 

I MADE THE WOODEN HALF RAINBOW CIRCLE FOR THE SUCKERS.

I used templates from HERE AND HERE

How the table looked before everyone tucked into the food and candy and towers of individual rainbow jello.

YOU CAN SEE HOW I MADE THE RAINBOW TABLE SKIRT - HERE

 left to right:

Mark, Me, Jason, Daniel, Jarom

Seren and Michael 

 Breanna, Brad, Jade, Me, Jason, Jarom, Daniel

Autumn, Paisley, Seren and Michael

Seren's big brother, Bradley

and big sister, Jade

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Rainbow Tablecloth

Red and Yellow and Pink and Green

Purple and Orange and Blue

I can sing a Rainbow,

Sing a Rainbow, 

Sing a Rainbow too.

Who doesn't sing that rhyme whenever there's a Rainbow?

I always do :) I can't help it. 

So, when I was perusing Pinterest for ideas for my daughter's baptism theme - HELLO RAINBOW:)

Plus, it goes along with a song that the LDS primary children sing to go along with their Baptism - 'Whenever I am Baptized'.

Here's what I did.

Visited the Dollar Tree and picked up a bunch of plastic tablecloths, minus orange (which Walmart had)

Then came the laborious task of literally being on my knees for two hours for one Rainbow table skirt. I made two! So, four hours! BUT I think it was well worth it. What do you think?

I bought white as my BASE cloth. This is what you'll stick your strips of colored plastic cloths onto.

An easy way to cut the tablecloths is when you pull them out of the cellophane wrapper, keep them as they are. Then all you do is cut them in half LENGTH WAYS!

You will use TWO lengths of each color for one whole cloth. Which is one whole colored tablecloth

Then you begin the long knee hurting, the back-breaking task of sticking each color on. 

I marked my middle first and then joined both strips of cloth. Then taking one of those strips, I measured where the middle of that was and stuck it down. THAT way its easier to GATHER in sections and not be left with either too much or not enough. AND you'll get an EVEN gather

You have to GATHER as you go and stick.

I found it easier to use a yardstick to hold my gathers then taking a clear tape to stick it down

JUST KEEP GOING :)

AND GOING

UNTIL YOU'VE GOT YOURSELF A RAINBOW TABLE SKIRT!

I MADE TWO OF THESE ONES FOR THE FRONT AND ONE FOR THE BACK. I JOINED THEM ON THE SIDES OF THE TABLE

I used some extra tablecloths I bought on top of the table to hide the tape I used to hold the table skirt up.

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Wales Holiday

We'll Keep A  Welcome in the Hillside.

This song title always runs through my head when I get to fly home to Wales and finally after 6 years, we got to go home for a long overdue visit. Mind you, this song always chokes me up and I can't stop tears from welling in my eyes :/ It's a song that we would sing whenever visitors/ loved ones leave Wales with the hopes that one day they will come back to Wales again.

I digress. 

I finally went home for a visit - sound the trumpets :) We went as a family, Jason came for the first week with me and the girls, Seren and Carys, and boy, was it a busy first week.

We tried to cram as much as we could even though it rained! Typical lol and divide our time with my older children who live there, my father, sisters and visiting the sites. So with that, I hope you like my little picture montage ;)

 HERE WE ARE READY TO TAKE OFF - MIND YOU, JASON DIDN'T TAKE LONG TO FALL STRAIGHT TO SLEEP

WE GET TO MY HOMETOWN OF LLANELLI AND GO VISIT MY DAD

 SEREN WENT STRAIGHT TO HER GRANDPA FOR A HUG THEN CARYS FOLLOWED SUIT.

I COULDN'T GO HOME AND NOT VISIT MY MOTHERS GRAVE :( 

 WE WENT TO CYFARTHA CASTLE IN MERTHYR TYDFIL BUT FOUND OUT IT IS CLOSED ON MONDAYS! LIKE SAY WHAT BUT WE DID GO BACK THE FOLLOWING WEEK WITH MY ELDEST DAUGHTER JODI AND HER CUTE FAMILY.

CASTLE COCH

ASHTON, SEREN, AND CARYS IN THE LORD BUTE'S BEDCHAMBER

CARYS DIDN'T WANT TO SIT IN THE BATHTUB LOL

WHEN YOU TELL YOUR CHILDREN NOT TO DISREGARD THE SIGN YET, THEY STILL STEP OVER THE ROPE!

 CARDIFF MUSEUM

DAN -Y- OGAF CAVES

THIS PLACE IS AMAZING.

TO SEE ALL THE STALICTIES AND STALAGMITES IS PRETTY COOL

CHECK OUT THE ONE THAT LOOKS LIKE STREAKY BACON! 

THE CATHEDRAL CAVES

MY FAVORITE CASTLE

CARREG CENNEN CASTLE

I JUST LOVE THE VIEWS 

IS THAT A CHILD IN THE CASTLE OVENS! SAY WHAT! :)

THE GIRLS DIDN'T WANT TO VENTURE DOWN TO SEE THE WATERING WELL. MIND YOU IT WAS PRETTY WET, SLIPPERY AND VERY DARK.

THE VIEW OF CARREG CENNEN ON THE WAY BACK DOWN

PARC HOWARD

WE DIDN'T GET MUCH TIME TO VISIT PARC HOWARD AS IT WAS CLOSING.

THIS IS A PLACE I'D COME ALL THE TIME AS A CHILD TO PLAY WITH MY FAMILY.

THE GRAND STAIRCASE WAS SOMETHING THAT I SLID DOWN QUITE A BIT.

THE BIG PIT 

SEREN DOESN'T LOOK TO PLEASED TO BE GOING DEEP UNDERGROUND LOL 

RAGLAN CASTLE

THE DAY WAS YET AGAIN A RAINY ONE :( SO IT WAS A PRETTY MUCH QUICK DASH AROUND RAGLAN CASTLE

HANNAH AND SEREN

SEREN AND ALICE

AND BELOW, ALED MY GRANDSON

HANNAH AND ALICE ARE SISTERS AND MY GRANDDAUGHTERS

LEFT TO RIGHT - JODI, ASHTON, CARYS, SEREN, AND HANNAH

OUR SECOND VISIT TO CYFARTHA CASTLE

LET US OUT! LOL

 AND WHO WOULD LIKE THIS BEDROOM SET FOR THEIR NEW BEDROOM!

ERM...NOT US LOL

 CUTE ALICE COULDN'T RESIST USING THIS AS A SLIDE :)

SEREN YOU'VE GOT A FEW MORE INCHES TO GROW BEFORE YOU REACH THE TOP!

              WE GOT TO SLEEPOVER AT MY BEST FRIEND, EVE'S HOME WITH HER DARLING CHILDREN, JAMES AND MILLIE

ST. FAGANS

MUSEUM OF WELSH LIFE

 WHERE'S SUPERMAN?

 IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT 'SIOP LOSIN' MEANS

IT MEANS

'SWEET SHOP' OR 'CANDY SHOP' IF YOUR AMERICAN

ME AND MY GIRLS

RIGHT TO LEFT

ASHTON, JODI, ME AND LAURIE  

                                I SPY CARYS :)                                           I SPY SEREN :)

PEEK-A-BOO ASHTON!

I SEEM TO HAVE LOST MY HEAD

OH, THERE IT IS LOL

LEFT TO RIGHT

ASHTON, KAYE MY YOUNGER SISTER, ME, ALSION MY ELDEST SISTER

AND OF COURSE SEREN AND CARYS X

MY DAD, WITH ASHTON, SEREN, AND CARYS

THEN ME WITH MY DAD XXX

MY NEXT ELDER SISTER JUDITH AND ME

JUDITH, ME AND ASHTON

ITS GOOD TO LAUGH SOMETIMES :) 

LEFT RO RIGHT

HANNAH MY GRANDDAUGHTER, CARYS, AND SEREN

MY GIRLS SLEEPING OVER AT JODI'S

AND HERE ARE ME AND THE GIRLS READY TO FLY BACK TO UTAH.

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